This week we ran a competition : folks had to write the ending of an existing movie in exchange for passes to new Johnny Depp flick “Secret Window”. There were some real beauties – hundreds of great ones actually – here’s a few that we received. Of the three hundred or so doozies, someone suggested that "At the end of Titanic when the old lady throws the jewel overboard…it finds Jack, now a merman, and he swims off with it!", that in "Empire Strikes Back – Han Solo doesn’t get frozen in carbonite, so I don’t have to sit thru Return of the Jedi to see that he gets out ok", and that in "Lethal Weapon 3 – At the end, Joe Pesci develops a rare foot fungus that ultimately kills him. (Actually, this could have happened at the start! Either way there’s no Pesci in 4"). There were about a hundred different variations on how they should have ended “Titanic”. Here’s one more for good measure: “Titanic – Let Rose (Kate Winslet) live and kill off Jack (Leonardo Dicaprio) and let her marry the incredible sexy and hunky Cal (Billy Zane)" Winners will be notified by mail by the studio.
Ja Rule will play one of the crooks in the remake of “Assault on Precinct 13”. Shooting on the film begins this month.
Lauren Graham [“Gilmore Girls”] and Faith Ford [“Murphy Brown”] have joined the cast of Vin Diesel starring “The Pacifier”. Graham will star opposite Diesel’s character as the principal of the school where he’s working undercover, with Ford starring as the mother of the kids that his character is protecting.
Disney has purchased the comedy pitch “Powderpuff Girls”, which revolves around an NFL coach who’s fired, and ends up moving back to his small town in Texas, where he coaches his tomboy daughter’s all-girl football team in an all-boy’s league.
Ryan Pinkston [“Punk’d”] is in talks to star in “Slay the Bully”, about an eighth-grader (Pinkston) who moves to a new town. He is immediately mistaken for having beaten the resident bully to a pulp, and a rematch is set for the wrestling ring.
Coming Soon reports that Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch will re-team for “Forget about it”, centering on two folks that have an attraction for one another but can’t quite get it together.
Dark Horizons reports that a site called Telepoche has a tip-off to the “Tintin” casting saying young actor Pierre Larden may have won the title role.
The voice cast of “The Simpsons” have not shown up for two table reads in the past few weeks, reports Variety, holding up production on the show’s 2004-05 season. Each of the cast is reportedly asking for approximately $360,000 an episode, or $8 million for a 22-episode season.
David Beckham is rumoured to be in talks with an American studio about playing a part in the inevitable Hollywood remake of “Bend it like Beckham”.
FilmJerk has some fresh details on “xXx 2”. The film will begin shooting in mid-July, with locations set to include Los Angeles, Baltimore and the nation’s capital, Michael Roof is back in the role of National Security Agency techie Toby Lee Shavers and According to one source, “The sequel will find a new XXX program agent, Darius Stone, embroiled in thwarting a Washington power struggle.” Stone, will be played by Ice Cube.
According to IMDB, Disney is at work on a new animated ‘Mickey Mouse’ flick called “The Search for Mickey Mouse”, which will centre on a detective called Basil of Baker Street who is hired to find the lost icon. Jim Cummings [“Winnie the Pooh”] and Rob Paulsen [“Pinky and the Brain”] are among the voice cast.
StarshipTroopers2.net reports that the sci-fi sequel will be released theatrically in Japan and South Korea, and also play on the big screen at various festivals – including the 21st Annual Ohio Science Fiction Film Festival, held in Columbus, Ohio on May 1st.
The Associated Press reports that Ray Liotta will star in the film “Soldier Field”, about the US Coast Guard. Producing is Erica Huggins, who’s about to start work on “Jumanji 2”.
Laura Dern, Tom Arnold, Jason Ritter, David Sutcliffe and Johnny Galecki are joining Maggie Gyllenhaal in the ensemble comedy “Happy Endings”
HBO – via MediaSharx – are reporting that Betty Thomas is set to direct a telemovie based on the life of MAD magazine founder William M. Gaines.
Teletext – via Dark Horizons – says “The League of Gentlemen” movie – which will see characters Tubbs, Edward and Pauline trying to save the village of Royston Vasey from forces threatening to wipe out their business – will start shooting in the Autumn.
HollywoodNorthReport has more pics up from “Edison”, these ones feature Kevin Spacey.
Mandy Moore flick “Chasing Liberty” will be going direct to DVD in Australia. The June release will include extras like an audio commentary and deleted scenes.
DVDanswers has details on who’s doing the commentaries on the “Star Wars” DVDs.
The trailer for “Adored – Diary of a Porn Star”, the acclaimed and controversial Italian film from director Marco Filiberti, is up here
Danny Boyle’s next film “3000 Degrees” is gearing up to shoot in Toronto from May 10 to August 10, reports SneakPeek.CA
Rena Owen [“The Crow : Wicked Prayer”] has agreed to play the role of a princess in a new Polynesian movie, about a princess who had been banished from her island by the King. Co-starring are Branscombe Richmond and Rawiri Paratene. “Napua” will be ready in time to screen at Sundance in 2005.
SneakPeek.CA reports that "The Talisman", now budgeted at $135 million, is scheduled to shoot in Vancouver this year. Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce the film, based on Stephen King’s story.
Albert Hughes will direct “Art Con”, a MGM film being developed by Michael Douglas’ Furthur Films as a potential star vehicle for the actor in which he’d play a charming con man who masterminds ambitious art fraud scandals.
Superhero Hype has a poster up from the UK Empire which could be the teaser poster for “Catwoman”.
MediaSharx are reporting a rumour that ‘The Joker;’ might appear in “Batman Begins”, albeit in a flashback.
Sources : ‘Mark’, ‘Michael’, ‘Stefan’, ‘Lisa’, ‘Carolina’, ‘Arek’, ‘Chris’, ‘Ben’, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety
Caffeinated Clint
This week we ran a competition : folks had to write the ending of an existing movie in exchange for passes to new Johnny Depp flick “Secret Window”. There were some real beauties – hundreds of great ones actually – here’s a few that we received. Of the three hundred or so doozies, someone suggested that "At the end of Titanic when the old lady throws the jewel overboard…it finds Jack, now a merman, and he swims off with it!", that in "Empire Strikes Back – Han Solo doesn’t get frozen in carbonite, so I don’t have to sit thru Return of the Jedi to see that he gets out ok", and that in "Lethal Weapon 3 – At the end, Joe Pesci develops a rare foot fungus that ultimately kills him. (Actually, this could have happened at the start! Either way there’s no Pesci in 4"). There were about a hundred different variations on how they should have ended “Titanic”. Here’s one more for good measure: “Titanic – Let Rose (Kate Winslet) live and kill off Jack (Leonardo Dicaprio) and let her marry the incredible sexy and hunky Cal (Billy Zane)" Winners will be notified by mail by the studio.